There are loads of wonderful products and techniques out there for creating texture and I decided to take a kraft board hanging and cover it with left over die cuts and small pieces of netting and scrim. Once these were stuck down I used Grunge Paste and the Harlequin Stencil to create more texture over the top.

A layer of gesso came next to unify it all and then I blended Seedless Preserves and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks here and there - just a little at a time and I kept watering it down to keep it light.

Finally I added some torn pieces of Tissue Wrap.

I decided to keep all my embellishments white and used a pallete knife to layer Picket Fence Distress Crackle Paint on a Spring Greenery die cut. (This was before it dried!)

The flowers were made using white card stock and the Tattered Florals die in my usual scrunched way and I added those wonderful stamens for the centres.

Finally I stamped a sentiment using various words from the Simple Sayings Set.

And so there you have it a Journey into Texture!

I do hope you will join us for this challenge and remember to hop over to A Vintage Journey to see some fabulous makes by the rest of the DT. Don't forget to make sure you read the Travelling Instructions before linking your project and tell us what Tim inspired techniques and products you have used in your blog post.

Sunday, 18 May 2014

We have a bright and spicy colour challenge for you this month at Anything But A Card which certainly got me hunting through my Distress Inks!

And this is what I came up with.

I would never have dreamed of putting these six colours together, but what a stunning combination they turned out to be!

With this number of colours I thought wrinkle free distress would work best but I did blend Seedless Preserves around the edges of the tag. You can probably see that I tried to stamp with Picket Fence Distress Stains but the colour underneath wasn't strong enough, so I used Versamark and White Detail Embossing Powder instead

I was very pleased with the result!

I used some Prima white flowers to mop up the ink left on the craft mat.

Ribbons and lace also got inked!

I didn't think the tag needed much more than a couple of skeleton leaves, pins, scrim and a small sentiment.This was a lot of fun and I would never have used this number of colours together, so why not have a go yourself and see what you come up. One more week of the challenge is left, but plenty of time for you to make ...Anything But a Card!Thank you for joining me today and do hop over and see the rest of the DT makes - there are some amazing projects!Enjoy the rest of the weekend.Jennie x

Friday, 16 May 2014

Our new challenge at A Vintage Journey chosen by the lovely Anne. I think we would all agree that men are always difficult to make things for, so Anne has suggested we make our challenge piece specifically for a man, using Tim's techniques and products.

Somebody said to me recently that they didn't think Tim Holtz products or techniques were for scrapbooking! How wrong they are!

For this layout I decided to use my favourite Distress Ink of the moment - Salty Ocean, with Stormy Skies and Mustard Seed (quite appropriate for a sailing layout!). I had first embossed the card stock with this lovely compass stamp from the Classics 14 collection. I blended the inks in and around the embossed areas, then I spritzed with a lot of water.Once dry I applied some Grunge Paste through the Harlequin Stencil and gave everything a good splatter with watery Stormy Skies and Salty Ocean.

I did some random stamping with one of the Mixed Media stamps and the Life is Good stamp from Simple Sayings.

Then I had fun collecting embellishments - I had some Cogs left over from a recent project and I made some tags using the Mini Ledger Stamp and Salty Ocean and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks. I had plenty of other products to add in and around the photograph too!

I layered the background paper and the photograph on some Kraft Core card stock which I scuffed up a bit. Finally I managed to get the last of my Linen Thickers into a related word for a title. I have loved these Thickers as they take Distress Inks so wonderfully.

A totally Tim inspired layout!

I do hope you will join us for our latest challenge - just remember to read the Travelling Instructions and tell us in your post how your project is influenced by Tim Holtz. And do hop on over to the blog to see the wonderful inspirational pieces made by the rest of the DT.

Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Today I am sharing a gardening dream as if I could my garden would be full of white flowers and green leaves, particularly lime green - I just love this wonderful combination of colours.

However, this far north I just have to be glad that anything grows - mainly RED hot pokers, YELLOW turks head lilies and PINK geraniums! I do have a lot of daisies (wild and cultivated) growing in the garden and they just have to compensate!

So today's tag for Country View Challenges theme Nature's Glories was inspired by this dream and I created it using these two dream colours.

For the base of my tag I used the the wonderful new papers from Finnabair - Cold Country - which I thought were quite appropriate for northern climes! I had the silver trellis left over from a previous project and this is the last of the wonderful Basic Grey lime green paper I bought about three years ago!

I am still enjoying making these (rather large) blowsy flowers (tutorial HERE). This one was made with some Stampin Up Natural Cardstock and using the Tattered Florals Die - this card stock really absorbs the water well and dries to look like porcelain.

This side view shows you just how huge these flowers are! They are very sturdy however and you could flatten them a bit more when making them.

Friday, 2 May 2014

First of all a huge welcome to everyone but particularly to new followers both on Google and Bloglovin - it is lovely to have you here on this fabulous crafting journey!

Last month it was my turn to lead Shetland Scrapbookers and so I shared this little meandering memories book made from a single sheet of 12 x 12 card stock. I chose to decorate mine with a pile of Maja Design leftovers which I just cannot bear to put in the bin, no matter how small!… and this fits in very nicely with the current challenge at Our Creative Corner which is to Love Those Leftovers!

As the book will take about 7 or 8 photographs I thought I would use it to document my last visit to see the grandchildren, but particularly Caitlyn who was so changed from when I last saw her.

Each page of the book measures 6" x 4" and was perfect for those little strips of paper which were left, or those where I had punched a label but kept a lovely flower!

Our monthly Scrapbook session is only three hours long, so we normally try and keep the project simple so everyone gets a chance to complete it. I have made this little book previously with some Graphic 45 papers and the instructions for cutting and folding are HERE on my blog if you would like to have a go yourself.

I have room on the tags to do some journalling as I want to be able to remember how gentle Callum is with his little sister and how much she loves being with him - something to remind them about when they are older I am sure!So … my pile of leftovers is a little diminished. If you want some great inspiration for using your leftovers then hop on over to Our Creative Corner as the DT have created some fabulous pieces from their scraps.It will be a little quiet here at Live the Dream (although there are a couple of scheduled posts) as on Tuesday I am travelling to Shrewsbury to spend some time with my brother and sister in law before flying out to Dubrovnik for a holiday with my four school friends to celebrate our 60th birthdays this year. Dubrovnik looks fabulous and we are all very excited about going there and of course our celebrations!

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Hello Everyone and welcome to the start of yet another month! This year is just going so fast! As usual on the 1st day of the month we start a new challenge at Country View Challenges and this month the theme is:

Natures Glories

Now I am sure everyone can come up with a project for this theme and we really look forward to seeing what you make.

I recently "gave in" and bought the last of the Distress Ink colours which I didn't have, including Mowed Lawn. I didn't think it was for me, but have loved how my crafting friends have used it. So here is my first attempt using it.

I white embossed the ivy on the tag first and then set to with the wrinkle free distress technique combining the Mowed Lawn with Crushed Olive. Mmmm quite like this combination. I then stamped some text with the Crushed Olive and blended Gathered Twigs around the edge of the tag.

I stayed with the same colours for my embellishments but added this white paper flower using the Stampin Up Pansy Punch and these glorious stamens.

I do hope you will join us for our challenge this month and don't forget to hop over to Country View Challenges to see what the rest of the Design Team have made.

About Me

Live the Dream is all about my creative journey which seems to be continually evolving!
My style is shabby vintage mixed media and I am passionate about making my own flower embellishments. I love sharing my work either in tutorials here and on Design Team blogs and also at workshops here in Shetland.
Where will it lead me next I wonder - wherever or whatever I know I am living the dream!